"Little pervert!" Catherine's face was flush red as she moved Kyle's head off her body.
She didn't know if it was because some residual static electricity remained on Kyle after he used Chidori, but Catherine felt a lingering, tingling numbness coursing through her body after that collision just now.
That's right, it must be static, she told herself inwardly.
Kyle put on a face of absolute innocence. He didn't know anything; he was just a twelve-year-old child, pure as a blank sheet of paper.
Compared to relishing the sensation of that accidental "face wash" just now, he had more important matters to attend to: treating his injuries.
Chidori had still caused a certain amount of damage to his arm, though the situation was far better compared to the first time he had performed this jutsu.
He now knew how to use magic power to insulate against the high heat generated by the electric current. Coupled with four months of lightning body tempering that had improved his resistance to electricity, the injury to his arm would recover with just a minor healing spell.
His most serious injury was actually from acting as a human cushion for Catherine when they crashed, followed by the multiple scrapes sustained during the roll.
At the speed they were both moving, the kinetic energy involved was enormous.
Moreover, while Catherine looked light and graceful, who knew what she grew up eating? She was heavy as hell.
That impact just now had nearly snapped his lumbar spine.
Catherine also noticed Kyle's injuries and felt quite guilty.
She had realized that after Kyle knocked her down, he had positioned his body between her and the wall during their tumble.
Less than an hour had passed since she and Kyle first met, and Kyle had already ended up in such a wretched state.
If Alfred found out about this, he'd probably beat her to death.
She crouched down and gently used magic to help heal the various scrapes on Kyle's body.
"How did you do that?" Catherine suddenly asked while treating Kyle.
"Do what?" Kyle didn't know what she was asking.
"Aside from using your wand for that Lighting Charm, you used wandless magic for everything else just now, right? How did you do it?"
As far as Catherine knew, wandless magic was an extremely profound spellcasting technique. Every wizard capable of wandless magic was a powerful wizard with extremely high magical attainment.
Like Dumbledore and Grindelwald.
But even for those two Great Demon Kings—one dark, one light—the magic they could cast without a wand couldn't be too complex.
"Did you notice my movements before I cast the spells?"
Recalling the battle carefully, Catherine realized that Kyle indeed made a movement with his hands before every spell.
No, it was several movements. Because Kyle's speed in forming hand seals was too fast, creating afterimages, she hadn't been able to see them clearly at all.
Catherine nodded her head, looking adorably dazed.
"That is forming hand seals, a mysterious spellcasting method from the East," Kyle explained.
Catherine's tone held deep amazement: "Hand seals? Isn't that the spellcasting method used by African wizards?"
"The earliest hand seals can be traced back to the eastern Dynasty, fully four thousand years ago."
"Can I learn it?" Catherine's bright eyes were filled with anticipation.
As an academic-type "Magical Girl," Catherine was filled with immense interest in this novel magical knowledge.
"Of course, no problem," Kyle agreed readily.
He had already successfully led George and Fred astray in their stylistic development.
Of the two, one was now researching the Puppet Technique, and the other was pursuing advanced studies in Demolitions. The "Artistic Duo" would surely make their mark in the wizarding world soon.
And now, steering Catherine toward the image of that "Angel" of the Hidden Rain Village he was familiar with shouldn't be too difficult, right?
He really, truly wanted to see the scene of Catherine learning the Dance of the Shikigami and causing explosions with six hundred billion paper bombs.
The character for fennel beans has four ways of writing... wait, no. There are twelve types of hand seal gestures.
Kyle slowed down his movements, displaying all twelve hand seals before Catherine.
"The purpose of hand seals is to help you control your magic power, substituting the role a wand plays during spellcasting. You must remember this, otherwise the seals you form will just be empty gestures."
He had taught this casting method to the other three "Father-Worriers" before.
They all learned the twelve hand seals, but didn't learn how to control the flow of their magic power.
The final result was... fierce as a tiger in operation, but looking at the effect—absolutely nothing happened.
While Catherine practiced the hand seal gestures repeatedly, Kyle began to review the earlier battle.
Today's combat practice had exposed quite a few problems.
Kyle had long anticipated encountering this difficulty with Chidori.
Chidori required rushing rapidly toward the opponent to be effective.
During this process, the caster would be unable to see the enemy's movements clearly due to the excessive speed, or their physical reaction wouldn't keep up with their own speed.
This was also the problem Minato Namikaze analyzed based on the combat performance of Chidori's original creator, Kakashi.
Minato Namikaze's evaluation of Chidori was: An incomplete jutsu.
Only when Chidori was upgraded to Raikiri, turning the entire hand into a treasured blade that could slice through iron like mud, would this jutsu be considered truly complete.
Raikiri was still too far off for Kyle; he could only seek other solutions.
Being unable to see the scenery clearly due to high speed—that was easy to solve.
Although the wizarding world didn't have plug-and-play Sharingan for him to gouge out, there was a spell called Eagle Eye.
The effect of the Eagle Eye spell was similar to a standard Tomoe Sharingan.
As for wanting to activate Susanoo, he might as well wash up and go to sleep early; dreams have everything.
The more critical issue was the body's response speed.
Kyle failing to brake after piercing the defensive shield formed by Protego with Chidori was a manifestation of his physical response speed failing to keep up with his brain's neural signals.
Brain: Brake!
Body: Roger that!
However, the crash had already happened.
Kyle carefully searched through his memories of the magic books he had seen in the library and found that there didn't seem to be a spell in the wizarding world that could solve this specific problem.
Makes sense. Wizards in this world didn't rely on Taijutsu to put food on the table.
So, did the Ninjutsu of the Naruto world have anything that could solve this?
Unlike the vast variety of Ninjutsu, there were only a few types of Taijutsu. The most representative among them was—
Forbidden Jutsu: Eight Gates Released Formation!
By unlocking the channels in the human body that restrict Chakra, one gains powerful strength temporarily.
Kyle clearly remembered that the first gate of the Eight Gates, the Gate of Opening, functioned to remove the brain's restraints.
After opening the first gate, one could utilize 100% of their body's physical capabilities.
The function of the first gate perfectly solved the problem Kyle was currently facing.
If paired with the Eagle Eye spell, Kyle was confident he could handle it even if his speed doubled again.
The Eight Gates were: Opening, Healing, Life, Pain, Limit, View, Wonder, and Death.
Kyle remembered the locations of these eight gates. The first two, the Gate of Opening and the Gate of Healing, were located in the brain area. The following five gates went from the chest all the way down to the lower abdomen.
As for the final gate, the Gate of Death, which leads to certain death after use, it was located at the most important organ in the human body other than the brain—the heart.
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